The inspiration for this little project is a Gungor song, called "Crags and Clay." I'm so in love with this song, the whole song, and listened to it over and over again when I was pregnant with Sam, after we lost Sam, and in the months since. I love it because it's beautiful and wonderful all on its own, and I also love it because the last lines that are sung are particularly special to me. As the song is winding down, Lisa Gungor sings the phrase "fearfully and, wonderfully and, beautifully made" over and over. The line is inspired by a famous passage in the Psalms, often used as evidence for the sanctity of human life inside the womb:
"For You formed my inward parts;
You knitted me together in my mother's womb.
I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are Your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from You,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth."
-Psalm 139:13-15
I love the verse, and I also love that Gungor chose to add "beautifully" to the "fearfully and wonderfully." Love it. And I thought it was extremely appropriate for a nursery.
My original plan was to use the phrase from Gungor's song on a large canvas I had stashed in a closet with my craft supplies. It actually shows up in my original drawing, and was supposed to be above the dressers.
After thinking that design through, though, I had a couple of problems. For starters, I had no idea what color to paint the canvas. The walls are already grey...the canvas is already white...I wanted to keep everything calm and in that color palette but I couldn't paint the canvas the same color as the wall I'd hang it on and I couldn't really leave it white. That would be weird. I would have figured that out though...my real issue was purely aesthetic. I liked the idea of the small rectangular frames in the middle of that collage, the naturally rough and misshapen plank of wood that the tree is on framing the right side, and a circular shape of some kind framing the left. Not another big rectangle. I just liked the image in my head when I used a big oval instead of a big rectangle. The only thing is that I didn't have an oval...and I was also starting to change my mind towards having the 1 Samuel verse be a bigger focal point in the room rather than this guy. Hence, the large oval chalkboard with the 1 Samuel verse, and this phrase showing up in a small frame on the side table next to the rocker.
I used some Kohl's gift cards to buy four of the five total frames I needed to decorate the nursery, which was a huge bonus since people seem to think they can charge a whole lot of money for picture frames. This is the one I chose for this project.
I liked the industrial-looking details on it, and I also wanted to deviate from a white frame since it would be sitting on a (one day) white side table.
So like I said, this entire project literally took me about four minutes start to finish. That's not an exaggeration, that's real life. I got some sketchbook paper and traced the little insert paper from inside the frame, to give me the size paper I needed.
Knowing that I needed three lines of text, because of the three main words in the phrase, I used my ruler to sketch out three faint guide lines, each 2 inches apart (it's a 4x6 piece of paper, so there was also an inch of space above the top line and below the bottom line).
Liking the free-handed feel that the chalkboard gave me yesterday, I just went with it and grabbed my little black pen (with a moderately thicker tip) and wrote it out.
I took a moment to put this in the frame and hold it back for a moment to see if I liked it. I took it back out, erased the pencil lines, added a tiny amount of further embellishment, and called it done!
And that, my friends, is it. Couldn't have been easier, is super cute, dearly sentimental, and adds a lot of fun to the side table. I'll hold off on showing you in its home until I paint the side table and it's all good to go for real.
I mentioned before that this is the kind of cheap and easy project that really does spruce up a room. Doing this kind of project with your favorite Bible verse, lyrics to your wedding song, your favorite Kid President quote, or even duplicating that cute Etsy print that keeps floating around Pinterest (guilty) can really be a fun way to claim something as your own and add some sentiment and personality to a room. DIYing something like this, rather than buying every print and piece of art that is in your house, can be really satisfying and save a ton of money long term (especially if you can use gift cards to buy the frames they go in!).
Here's the updated nursery to-do list:
- 1 Samuel 1:27-28 chalkboard
quote for inside side table frame- hang all pictures
- turn green bottle into a lamp
- recover lamp shade? new lamp shade?
- paint dressers white
- paint side table white
- paint side table drawer pull silver
- make mobile for over crib
- paint metal pail for books
- clean out closet and closet drawers
- clean out dresser drawers
- line dresser drawers with contact paper
- organizers for inside of dresser drawers
- hem curtains and hang them
- storage system and bins
- get small lamp for changing table
- make/buy crib skirt
- metal trash can for diapers
- basket with liner for hamper
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